22 August 1 • 2019
jn

N

early five years ago, Sue 
Goldsmith and her fami-
ly attended Mitzvah Day at 
St. Peter’
s Episcopal Church in the 
Corktown neighborhood of Detroit. It 

was here that Goldsmith met Janet Ray 
and the two bonded over a shared pas-
sion for community service.
Ray took Goldsmith and her family 
on a tour of the church that included 

a room that had a dingy shower in the 
corner.
According to Goldsmith, this decrepit 
shower was the spark that led her and 
Ray, along with volunteers from all dif-
ferent backgrounds, to begin the Corner 
Shower and Laundry, an independent 
nonprofit service dedicated to provid-
ing shower and laundry services to 
Corktown’
s homeless. 
“That shower kind of lingered in my 
mind,
” Goldsmith said. “I got in touch 
with [Ray] and we decided it seemed 
like an important thing to do. As far as 
my Jewish values are concerned, it is 
very important to me to give back to the 
community and take care of others.
”
Goldsmith and her family belong to 
Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Township 
but refer to St. Peter’
s as “their church,
” 
according to an article in the Episcopal 
News Service by David Paulsen.
The board of the Corner Shower and 
Laundry includes volunteers from all dif-
ferent religious and ethnic backgrounds.
“Working with people who have such 
different backgrounds is interesting and 
it’
s fun,
” Goldsmith said. “I have learned 
a lot about other religions and cultures. 
It’
s a very diverse group and everyone is 
playing nice.
”
The process of creating the Corner 

Shower and Laundry has been a long 
one, far longer than either Ray or 
Goldsmith expected. They have been 
working toward their goal for nearly five 
years.
Despite the long and often frustrating 
process, the team has persisted and plans 
to open the facility later this year. 
 “It seemed like a relatively easy thing 
to do at the time,
” said Goldsmith, who 
also works part time as a bookkeep-
er at her family business, Joe’
s Army 
Navy, and as a freelance floral designer. 
“Meeting the homeless people we would 
be serving and seeing how eager they 
are for the shower and laundry to be 
complete has kept us going. They are 
as kind as can be and are just down on 
their luck.
”
The main goal of the Corner Shower 
and Laundry, according to Goldsmith, 
is to provide a service almost everyone 
takes for granted and make it available 
to people who don’
t have access to these 
services.
“You know how you feel when you get 
out of the shower; you feel refreshed and 
rejuvenated,
” she said. “This isn’
t going 
to change their world and it’
s not going 
to change their lives overnight, but it’
s an 
opportunity for them to feel human and 
that’
s why I think it’
s important.
” ■

Helping the Homeless

West Bloomfi
 eld resident is helping bring showers 
and laundry to the homeless.

jews d
in 
the

CSL Board members stand 

at the shower stalls: Arthur 

Gabhart, David Pernick, Sue 

Goldsmith and Janet Ray.

COURTESY OF SUE GOLDSMITH

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